Rocket Talk!

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

A few weeks ago, I recorded an episode of Rocket Talk, the Tor.com podcast, with host Justin Landon. We talked about Planescape, the New Weird, SHIELD AND CROCUS (as a new weird/superhero mashup), and then we had a bonus discussion about urban fantasy).

You can listen to the episode here.

Since I didn’t get to mention it during the chat, I want to plug a couple works that I think are worth looking at as part of a broader discussion of the New Weird and its effects:

THE CRAFT SEQUENCE (starting with THREE PARTS DEAD) by Max Gladstone
THE MIRROR EMPIRE by Kameron Hurley

and because it doesn’t get talked up enough, THE ETCHED CITY by KJ Bishop.

Happy listening!

Kindle Unlimited

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Earlier this week, news leaked out about Kindle Unlimited, an ebook subscriptions service for $9.99 a month, with a title list of over 600,000 titles, including Amazon Publishing titles, self-published titles, and several big-name exclusives.

The program is now live, and there are details on the page.

Terms – or ‘How Are Authors and Publishers Getting Paid?’

What that page *doesn’t* mention is how authors/publishers are paid.

UPDATE: There was a miscommunication on my contact’s part, and the content that was previously here is not meant to be public. As a result, I’ve redacted the term details.

UPDATE: I’ve received one confirmation from a self-published author (J.S. Morin) that their KDP Select titles were automatically included in KU. And the KDP Select page has been update to include KU as a feature. Interestingly, I’ve spotted at least one title I thought was on KDP Select but does not appear to be in KU. This may merely be a blip, however.

Takeaway

Unless the terms are terrible for authors across a variety of publishers, Kindle Unlimited is likely to create very stiff competition for the existing ebook subscription services such as Oyster and Scribd. It’ll be interesting to see how much volume of sales KU generates, and whether that changes other ebook purchasing habits. I see the subscription model as being best for voracious readers who want versatility as well as depth of selection, vs. less high-volume readers who may need to be more selective in their purchases, and will probably continue to shop based on individual authors and titles.

The publishing seas continue to change quickly, as they have for several years. May the winds be at your back, and a friend at your side come the next storm.

And to be mercenary for a moment, if you sign up for Kindle Unlimited, Shield and Crocus is in fact one of those titles you can read as part of the free trial. *wink wink*

Just Keep Swimming

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

You know how ducks swimming along look all chill, but if you look under the water, they’re paddling away? That’s me, right now. I’ve got a bunch of balls in the air, so I’ve been spending more time traveling for work, writing, and submitting than on blogging.

Here’s what I’m up to right now:

1) Doing a read-through of Hexomancy to set revision objectives. I’m 251 pages into a 318 page document, and so far, I think Hexomancy is the sharpest, most fun Ree Reyes story yet. I’m really happy with the rough, so I think revision should go fairly smooth.

2) Working with Agent Sara on project proposals to send out into the world. This includes the project Formerly Known As Metaphysical Fencing Academy as well as another project from from PITCHAPALOOZA. The third thing prepping to make the rounds is a Shiny New Idea that I’m particularly excited about.

3) Developing the Shiny New Idea. Said Shiny New Idea is especially exciting because it was created in direct response to my Business Brain going to Creative Brain like it was a TV executive or an editor and said “Hey, Creative Brain. I want to do X thing, business-wise, so bring me a saleable idea that fits models X and Y, preferably in Genre Q.” And Shiny New Idea was the result. I have so many different ideas that I get excited by that it was actually fun to give myself a market-based challenge, saying “I dare you (self) to come up with something cool that fits this business agenda,” and then to do it.

Guacamelee – by Drink Box Studios

In addition, I’ve been really enjoying a video game called Guacamelee, a Castlevania/Metroid-style Mexican Fantasy game starring a Luchador. It’s pleasantly bonkers, and really rather hard, especially since my USB controller doesn’t work with my laptop. I’d play on my desktop, but that’s hooked up to my standing desk, and I’m still recovering from the knee injury from back in February (I got X-Rays, so Medical Responses are in progress).

Other than that, I’m coming up to NYC this weekend to lead a Writecraft workshop at WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn. Hope to see you there!

PROMONADO Report

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

June was a whirlwind, and now moving into July, we’ve come through the eye of the PROMONADO and are now going through the second half, with CONvergence and ReaderCon, as well as more podcastery.

Today, I’m on Adventures of Sci-Fi Publishing, talking about SHIELD AND CROCUS, Tor.com’s new imprint, the Hachette/Amazon situation, and more. There’s also a giveaway for a SHIELD AND CROCUS bundle (paperback, audiobook, ebook).

And just a couple of days before that, my spot on the Reader/Writer podcast went live.

Fangirl Nation has a review of CELEBROMANCY– “a creative look at an intricate movie culture and works as a commentary on the power of that culture. Underwood continues to write a series that is engaging, filled with pop culture references and entertaining to boot.”

SHIELD AND CROCUS gets a mention on Literologie’s Summer Reading List.

And lastly, I squee about Beth Cato’s THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER for Tor.com’s Writers on Writing segment.

CONvergence is coming!

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Dear all,

I’ll be at CONvergence this week, a marvelous all-fandoms SF/F convention in Bloomington, MN. Lee Harris, Emma Newman and I took an Angry Robot scouting mission last year, and this year we’re bringing a bunch of authors for a full advance guard.

In addition to my Angry Robot song-and-dance in the dealer hall, I’ll be on some panels. Here’s my schedule:

Thursday, July 3rd

Mainstreaming of Geekdom – Atrium 6 – 12:30-1:30 PM

Lots of popular movies are based on geek stuff. How do you handle being a geek hipster – or feeling like you don’t fit in? Many people were geeks before it was cool. Let’s stop feeling bad. Let’s celebrate that geeks are cool!
Panelists: Jaqueline Stoner, Hal Bichel, Kara Redding, Michael R. Underwood, Holley McLellan

Skiffy & Fanty Show: Live at CONvergence! – Edina – 2:00-3:00

A live episode of the Skiffy & Fanty Show (skiffyandfanty.com) with guest authors CL Patel and Martha Wells. We’ll discuss influences on SF/F lit from gaming, comics, etc. with authors who write SF/F fiction but have experience writing for other formats.
Panelists: Michael R. Underwood (mod), Carrie Patel, Martha Wells, David Annandale, Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer

Saturday, July 5th

Gender in Urban Fantasy – Edina – 2:00-3:00

This genre tends to have more female protagonists and writers. Is it marketing, or something else?
Panelists: Melissa Olson, Emma Bull, Paul Cornell, Laura Zats, Michael R. Underwood

Is there Life after Dark and Gritty? – Edina – 5:00-6:00

How did we get from Adam West to the Dark Knight? Can we reboot a series and make it more optimistic?
Panelists: Scott Lynch, Sarah Prentice, Michael R. Underwood, Tabitha Anderson, Michael Damian Thomas

Sunday, July 6th

From Gaming to Writing – Atrium 7 – 2:00-3:00

Many novels started life as roleplaying games. Are you a GM using a game to figure out the world for your novel? Or have you had such a great time running or playing in a game that you’re working on making it into a book? What are the perils and pitfalls?
Panelists: Elizabeth Bear, David Annandale, Ozgur K. Sahin, Michael R. Underwood, Emmy Jackson

Shield and Crocus super-bundle contest

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Contest time!

I’m going to give away a three-pack of Shield and Crocus awesomeness – the paperback, a CD audiobook, and a copy of the ebook. I’ll sign and personalize the paperback.

How do I enter?

We’ll have a bit of fun inspired by Shield and Crocus. Comment on this post and tell me your favorite superhero, and what fantasy world you’d love to see them in, and why.

Deadpool in Ankh-Morpork or Wonder Woman in Westeros, and so on.

Enter by July 2nd, 12 Noon EDT, and I’ll select a winner at random to get the deluxe pack. Entrants from USA and CAN will be eligible for the full pack – entrants from elsewhere in the world are welcome, but the prize will be just the ebook.

Short Thoughts on the World Cup & Fencing

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

This last week, I watched a couple of World Cup games with my fiance and friends (Germany-Ghana and USA-Portugal).

Engaging once more with the game of football, I was transported back to my years playing in junior high. The smell of fresh-cut grass, the heat of summer, the crisp evening air, the joy of a perfect slide-tackle.

Another thing that struck me was how overwhelmingly important it is in football to be on the right foot at the right time. No fewer than three times in the USA-Portugal game, a play failed to happen because a player’s weight was on the wrong foot.

This takes me back to fencing, footwork, and tempo. Modern fencing is very double-weighted – fencers tend to have their weight split equally. Historical fencing tends to have more weight on one foot or the other, which makes it more applicable here, since when these play moments came up, almost every player was in-motion, so moving from full weight to full weight in terms of their balance.

In fencing, as in football (and tango dancing, too, but that gets to a larger blog post), it’s hugely important to know how many steps or movements it will take to get to where you’re going, and where your weight will be when you need to make a critical action, whether that’s the perfectly-timed lunge in fencing, or the critical one-touch shot-on-goal in football.

This blog brought to you by my brain relating everything to fencing.

Shield and Crocus launch report

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Last Friday, Atomic Books hosted the launch for Shield and Crocus, my first book in paperback format. It was amazing, wonderful, and I will cherish the memory for all of my days.

I was greeted by a lovely stack of bookness upon my arrival:

I took the lay of the land, remembering how cool it was to be in a book/comic shop with its very own bar:

When the time came, Benn from Atomic introduced me, and I faced the crowd (it got even bigger later!)

Fellow Codexian and Team Novelocity member Fran Wilde snapped this photo during my reading, which I love and very well may want to use as my next author photo:

I read from the beginning of Shield and Crocus (featuring a messy apartment, a grappling hook, and robot voices), answered a few questions, and then we broke out into social time. I was excited to meet several fellow writers in the area, re-connect with local friends, and make several new friends.

There was even cake! (It was not a lie)

And I was so excited as we were arriving that I didn’t even notice the poster they put in the front window! We snapped a quick picture before heading home for the night.

Thank you to Atomic Books for hosting me, and to everyone who came out to help launch the book!

For those who weren’t able to make it, Atomic Books still has a number of signed copies of Shield and Crocus, which you can order from their website.

Writing Process Blog Hop

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

There’ a meme going ’round, focusing on writing process. Joe Iriarte was kind enough to tag me in to take a turn.

1) What are you working on?

I’m finishing up the editorial revisions on The Younger Gods, my new urban fantasy coming toward the end of the year. It’s a bit darker and way more mythological-y than the Ree Reyes books, about the one moral son in a family of callous demon cultists. I’ve completed my second pass of this round, and now I’m going to add a couple of scenes to adjust the pacing and to clarify some worldbuilding elements. Then it goes back in for copy edits.

2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?

The biggest point of distinctiveness for The Younger Gods is probably the voice. Jacob Greene, the lead, is a character I’ve developed over a number of years, dating back to a story seed I had in undergrad. I wasn’t good enough as a writer to make that voice work, so I put the character away. I brought him back out for a role-playing game campaign, and after that, I had a good enough handle on him to write a different version in prose format, which became The Younger Gods.

3) Why do you write what you do?

The flippant answer would be ‘because I want to,’ but the more useful answer is, I think, because I am an aggregate remix of every influence, story, and experience that has made up my life. Much of my work tends to be action-driven, probably due to having grown up with action-driven video games and spending twenty years (on and off) studying martial arts.

4) How does your writing process work?

My process has changed a lot just over the almost two years since Geekomancy was published. When I first got started as a writer, I was almost entirely a pantser/gardener/discovery writer, which meant that I got a vague idea and then started writing.

No more. I’ve moved toward outlining project by project, and have been very happy wiThe last first draft I wrote of a novel was fully outlined (3-4 page outline), which I then expanded into scene by scene outlines about a third at a time, keeping ahead of my drafting. And as a result, I wrote the first draft of Hexomancy in just over four weeks. And for the next novel I write, I’m going to try to outline even better. Not outline more, but better. My hope is to do a stronger structural outline to incorporate sub-plots and balance pacing, so that my first draft is even better, so that I won’t have to do as much revision.

—

I don’t like the average chain-letter-meme thing, but I’d be happy to pass on the love. If you’d like to carry forward the meme, comment below and I’ll link through to your site. Applies to the first three commenters so interested. And anyone else who wants to pick up the thread is of course welcome to do so.

The PROMONADO Continues

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

I’m still in major promotions mode for Shield and Crocus, so here are some greatest hits of the last few days:

25 Secrets of Publishing, Revealed! (Or: Inside the Bookish Shatterdome) at TerribleMinds.

My Summer of the New Weird on Kindle Post.

I held an AMA (Ask Me Anything) at Reddit’s r/Fantasy community.

The Qwillery had me back for another interview.

As did My Bookish Ways.

AND – if you’re remotely within range of Baltimore, I’d love to see you at the official launch party for Shield and Crocus at Atomic Books this Friday at 7PM.